Excerpt: Sularai: Flying Rocks Story (Now with more Steampunk)

Jamison had the sense to avoid snorting or saying anything nasty about Rialla Stonn. After several heated arguments, he had gained the understanding that while the Aeritanus family was up for some discussion, Rialla’s qualities were many and she had no flaws. Bennings was madly, unaccountably, and uncontrollably in love with his betrothed. Though they had spoken no more than three times, he still found himself awake at night wondering how, as the eleventh son and a failure, he had ever been betrothed to a woman so wonderful as she.

He suspected that if it were open to any discussion, Jamison would have said that it was due to the Stonn family trying to recapture its former glory by marrying as many of their daughters into the Aeritanus name as they could, but Bennings could never quite follow his logic.

“Silver linings only serve to make things more overpriced,” Jamison muttered. When Bennings walked the next half block past the barbershop, watchmaker and butcher without speaking, Jamison sighed and asked, “How long will you get to see her for this time?”

Bennings thought he could feel his heart swelling with joy. He thought that was probably an anatomically impossible inaccuracy, but that was the feeling all the same. “An hour,” he said. “There will be a chaperone of course – most likely her cow-faced maid. I imagine she’ll want to talk about maths again, but that’s okay. I rarely understand what she’s saying – she’s brilliant, Jamey – but I love the way she talks about the numbers as though they are close friends instead of problems to be solved.”